


A Walk Through The Woods

by Fortisfiliae



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Fluff, Forests, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Oneshot, Post-Hogwarts, Slytherin, Slytherin Reader, Spooky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 15:49:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20762906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fortisfiliae/pseuds/Fortisfiliae
Summary: Sirius gets on your nerves, as always, but wants to apologize by taking you for a walk through the woods, to surprise you with something special. Needless to say, there’s trouble ahead.(Sirius Black x Slytherin reader)





	A Walk Through The Woods

The campfire crackled loudly in front of you, as you roasted a marshmallow above it, sitting next to your classmates in the Forbidden Forest. With your wand in your hand, you turned your wrist for quite a while, the marshmallow following its every move, until it got dark brown, soft and - finally fitting its name - mellow.

You let it float towards you, licked your lips and opened your mouth, ready to finally taste the hot treat you had carefully prepared until suddenly a hand slammed into frame and swooped away your gooey dessert right before your eyes.

Your head snapped upwards, following the person’s hand, that moved too fast for you to catch and you saw -

“Sirius! Merlin, stop acting like an arsehole for once, will you.”

Sirius grinned as he stuffed the marshmallow into his mouth, regretting his choice immediately.

“Shit,” he breathed and kept his mouth agape. “It’s hot.”

“Yeah, that’s what happens when you roast things over a fire, you knob.”

He fanned air towards his open mouth and nodded, laughing again.

That dimwit. You wanted to wish him second-degree burns but bit your tongue while he licked the sticky remnants off his fingers. That sly face of his deserved a hex or two for sure. 

“You owe me, Black,” you muttered as you turned your back on him.

“Oh, do I?” he asked. You could hear his stupid grin through the tone of his voice.

“You certainly do. You know what? You-”

A gentle hand on your shoulder distracted you for a moment. 

“Hey,” Matthew Wallace, the boy who sat next to you, said. “You can have one of mine if you want. I got plenty left. Here.”

Matthew’s marshmallows looked decent. Some were burnt on the edges and still too white on the other side. Certainly not as perfect as the one you had made before Sirius had stolen and devoured it whole. 

“Thanks, Matt,” you said, grabbed one and turned around again. “See that, Black? That’s how a gentleman behaves.”

Chuckling to yourself you looked back into the fire, nudged Matt with your elbow and completely missed the begrudging expression on Sirius’ face.

* * *

A few hours later, when you had almost forgotten about the marshmallow incident, a flask was passed around the people sitting by the fire. Peter had snitched a gallon of Firewhiskey from his parents at home and had made it tradition to bring some to special occasions like this.

You took a sip and looked at the dark sky above you. The sharp taste took a while to get used to, burning its way through your mouth, until the sweet note of honey wrapped itself around your tongue after you had swallowed. 

Some stars on the firmament seemed to shine brighter than others tonight. Just like the people you were with, you thought and chuckled to yourself.

“Save me a sip, love”, chimed a familiar voice from behind, as the person sat down to your left.

Sirius. Again. Making himself comfortable with that well-known smirk on his face. For a second you considered drinking the whole flask in one sip, just so he couldn’t have any. Sadly that could have been fatal and Sirius undoubtfully wasn’t worth hours of throwing up in the woods.

“And why should I?” you asked, now holding the flask firmer, swaying it in your hand. “Thief.”

“Oh come on,” he smiled. “You aren’t really still mad about the marshmallow, are you?”

You didn’t answer, took another sip and watched him push a strand of hair behind his ear, his eyes expectantly going back and forth between the flask and your lips.

“You hold grudges forever, don’t you?”

“If you think two hours is forever, then yes. I do.”

He clicked his tongue and shook his head, the flames beside him drawing warm tones onto his cold expression.

“Well, I’m sure you had it replaced within a second. Right, Matty?” 

Sirius looked to your right where Matthew sat, who didn’t seem to hear him.

“Oh.” You sneered and whispered: “You’re jealous.”

“Wha- No?” Sirius insisted, even though his reddening cheeks and bobbing knees said differently.

“Okay, okay,” you chuckled and finally offered him the flask. “There you go. You still owe me though.”

Even though him being jealous was obviously meant as a joke, he had acted way too strongly against it. If Sirius really liked you, he had a strange way of showing it. That’s why tonight was the first time this thought had come to your mind. 

“Alright, alright”, he sighed after a few sips. “I’ll make it up to you, okay?”

“And when will that be?”

“Now.” He got up swiftly and offered you his hand. “Come on!”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Come on,” he repeated. “I’m going to show you something.”

“You’re kidding,” you said, not really knowing why you had followed him to the edge of the clearing. “What is it?”

“You’re going to have to follow me if you want to know,” he grinned and motioned towards the dark path behind him.

“Into the woods? With you? You wish, Black.”

“What a shame. I know you would have loved to see them. Well, maybe some other time, then. When you’re not such a scaredy-cat.”

“I’m not! And who is ‘them’?”

“It’s a secret. I can’t tell you, but I can show you. If you’re not too scared, that is.”

The smug grin on his face told you exactly what game he was playing. He knew all too well how intrigued you were. And besides that, you wouldn’t take being called a scaredy-cat by a Gryffindor.

“Whatever. Let’s go then.”

You looked more self-assured than you actually were, when you walked past Sirius into the darkness, but fiddled your wand out of your pocket and held it tighter than necessary, just so that your hand wouldn’t start shaking.

“Lumos,” you and Sirius said simultaneously, enlightening the tips of your wands. It was so dark that the only things you saw were the spheres of light right in front of you, once the warm light from the bonfire behind you had started to fade, as you walked deeper into the woods.

“So, what are we doing now? I can’t see a thing,” you said after a minute.

The light from Sirius’ wand swung up and down a bit, as he chuckled. “You’re going to see, it’s a surprise!”

“That sounds super creepy, just so you know.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Didn’t come off as good as it sounded in my head. But you don’t have to be scared, I know the way.”

“I’m not scared.”

“Ah, stop lying, I can hear your rapid breaths from here. Do you want to hold my hand?”

“I’m _not _scared, Sirius,” you insisted.

You were scared. Just a little. The Forest was pitch black around you, the sounds of wood cracking and insects flying seemed to be ten times louder when you wandered there at night.

There was something else too. At first, you had thought you were imagining things, but it definitely was there, and it got louder. Something stomped your way. It sounded huge and heavy, its steps nearing you bit by bit. The leaves on the ground beside you crunched loudly and suddenly something brushed your arm. 

You shrieked and turned, trying to see what it was, your arm with your wand stretched out completely, but the light only shone merely into the darkness. 

“Did you hear that?” you asked. “Something touched me.”

“I did. Bloody hell, it sounded huge. Did you see what it was?”

“No, I couldn’t, I… The light is too weak. Is it gone?”

“I think so. Something touched me too,” Sirius whispered.

“What?”

He cleared his throat and let his wand shine towards his hand. You were holding it. You must have taken it when the thing had approached, out of pure instinct. Sirius’ fingers were still firmly tangled with yours until you quickly pulled away from him.

“Sorry, I… Got scared for a second it seems,” you mumbled and started walking again.

“Hey, no big deal, I-” Sirius’ words were cut off by a loud thump. “Ah!”

“What? What is it, what happened?”

You pointed your wand in every direction, trying to find him. 

“Here, I’m here,” you heard him say from your right. “On the ground.”

You lowered your wand and finally saw some strands of Sirius’ hair beneath you, so you knelt down.

“What happened? Was it the thing?”

“No, I tripped,” Sirius said and groaned, holding his ankle. “Over a root or something.”

“Let me see.” 

He tucked up the fabric of his jeans carefully, the light of his wand still shining from the ground beside him.

“Oh shit,” you whispered. 

His ankle was swollen and Sirius hissed when you touched it with only one finger.

“Do you think you can walk?” you asked. “Probably not, right?”

“I don’t know. Maybe if I… Ah, nevermind.”

He put some weight on the injured leg while he was still sitting, only to immediately retract.

“Well shit,” Sirius huffed. “Now what?”

A million thoughts rushed through your mind, all trying to find a way to help. You wouldn’t find your way back to your friends, that you were sure of. The only useful thing you could think of was magic.

“I could use the bandaging Charm,” you thought out loud.

Sirius blinked, then looked into your eyes. “Do you know how to do it? I mean, have you ever used it before?”

“Yes, I’ve done it three or four times. Always worked quite well.”

“_Quite_?”

“Sirius, do you want me to help you or not?”

“Yes,” he sighed. “Okay, okay.”

“Alright. Hold still,” you said, pointed your wand at his foot and inhaled deeply. “Ferula.”

Not one second had passed until bandages had wrapped themselves around Sirius’ ankle. He breathed out in relief.

“The bandages splint broken bones and ease pain,” you explained. “Give it a few minutes, it works pretty quickly.”

* * *

Half an hour later, you had helped Sirius to sit by a tree trunk, both of you rested your backs against it and waited for his ankle to get better.

“And one time, James and I were running late for class. Monday morning, don’t ask. We used James’ cloak to sneak into the classroom and Binns didn’t notice at all. Saved our asses a couple of times, I swear. Never with McGonagall though,” Sirius reminisced while he tested how much weight he could put onto his foot again.

He was a natural entertainer, had made you laugh countless times for the last minutes. You had even forgotten how dark and scary the woods were until you looked up and realised that you couldn’t even see the stars through the thicket.

“You’re really funny,” you said as you moved your head downwards again. “Who would have thought.”

“What do you mean who would have thought?” he asked and nudged your elbow. “I’d say that’s common knowledge.”

“Well, not to me apparently,” you said. “To me, you’re the guy that gets on my nerves, every time you’re around.”

“Ouch.”

“It’s true, though. The marshmallow earlier? I’m still not over it.”

“Oh come on,” he laughed.

“Seriously, why would you do that? Gets on my nerves. Common knowledge.”

“Okay, look. Do I regret it? Yes. Would I do it again? Probably.”

“Oh piss off,” you joked. 

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”

“But you’ve always been like that. Remember third grade? You hid my inkwell each time we had Transfiguration together that year.”

“Yeah, that was… unfortunate.”

“Or fifth year. Turned my cat red and gold.”

“We won the Quidditch cup that day. We needed a mascot.”

“It took weeks until the colours wore off.”

“That simply shows how powerful my spells are.”

“Sixth year. You sent fourteen owls to my room at once, each one carrying an envelope with only one letter written on it.”

“S L Y T H E R I N - S U C K S,” he remembered and smiled as if he was thinking of the most beautiful memories.

“The mess in my dorm was horrendous!”

“Sorry about that.”

“Why would you always pick on me like that?”

“Well, I don’t know,” he said and sounded surprised himself. “I was young and dumb-”

“The marshmallow thing happened today!”

“Yeah, yeah, your favourite marshmallow. I know. To be honest, I wasn’t aware of how mean those things came off actually. I guess I like to have a reason to talk to you. Even if that means you’ll be yelling at me.”

You tilted your head. “That’s the reason? Merlin. Gryffindors _are _dumb.”

“What else was I supposed to do then?”

“Just come up and talk to me, like a normal person?”

Sirius chuffed a small breath through his nose. “Yeah, maybe that’s what I should’ve done.”

The look on his face was more apologetic than his words could have ever been. You knew he was sorry. It seemed he just realised that his little pranks hadn’t been as funny to you as they had been to him.

He placed one hand on your knee, lightly squeezing as his head turned away.

“I’m gonna make it up to you, okay? As I promised,” he said and looked back at you.

“Okay.”

The air suddenly got warmer, Sirius’ face was like a magnet and you couldn’t help but stare at his lips. His eyes were piercing, searching your features, slowly nearing you until a loud cracking sound behind the tree startled you both.

“Um,” he said while hastily picking up his wand. “Should we-”

“Yeah, we should go. Want to try if you can walk again?”

“Sure.”

* * *

You had wandered, or rather walked, due to Sirius limping, through the woods for quite some time now. The strange noises here and there started to become familiar. They didn’t scare you as much anymore and nothing had touched you again, apart from Sirius, when he struggled to keep his balance every once in a while.

Your eyes had gotten used to the darkness and shapes in the distance slowly became more visible. Or maybe the sun was rising already. You couldn’t really tell.  
However, you could have sworn that you had seen that bush before. It was shaped like a peanut, quite unique. 

“Are we there yet?” you asked. “I feel like we’re running in circles.”

“We should be there in a minute. I think.”

“You think?”

“Uh, yup.”

“I thought you said you knew where we were going.”

“Yeah, I lied.”

“What?! You’re joking. Tell me that you’re joking!” you whisper-yelled. “We got lost in the woods, we’re never going to find our way back. I don’t even know what time it is anymore.”

“Okay,” he said and took a deep breath. “Stay calm.”

“Calm? Do you even-”

“I got this, trust me. I know I said I knew the way and… Honestly, I really did. I’ve been here plenty of times, I swear. It’s just… I fell and we had to sit and wait. That’s where I kind of lost the way.”

You didn’t say anything. There was too much going on in your head and you had to suppress the urge to strangle him right then and there.

Sirius was still rambling about the way, even though you had stopped listening moments ago.

“We just got to look for the purple Wiggentree, I swear it used to be exactly over there,” he said and pointed to his right.

“A Wiggentree? With blue and purple leaves?”

“Yes.”

“You mean the one behind you?”

Sirius turned around, his shoulders relaxing instantly, and turned back around with a relieved smile on his face.

“Exactly that one, yes!”

“So you know where we are?”

“Yes, and we are almost there. Come on!”

He took your hand and guarded you through the boughs, carefully watching his steps and always testing the ground with his healthy foot first.

“You know, I almost killed you back there,” you said as you wiped the remnants of spider webs from your forehead.

“Relax, I told you I knew the way.”

Merlin, so much confidence in one human body was definitely too much.

“We’re here,” he finally said. “Just in time. Don’t make a sound. And look.”

He pushed aside the branches of a bush and revealed a small clearing, which was already bright enough to spot from afar. You squinted your eyes, trying to get a better view.

“What am I supposed to-”

“Shhh. There, on the left.”

Something moved in the distance. A silver speck, prancing in the dawn, its long limbs almost floating above the ground. Next to it was another one. And another. Three things, probably creatures, moved slowly over the grass.

You pushed your head closer and squinted your eyes a bit more. Then, you finally recognized. They weren’t silver specks.

“Unicorns!” you whispered.

Sirius smiled and nodded.

You had never seen such beauty in your life. Three unicorns, one of them a calf, grazed calmly right before your eyes. Their fur was smooth as glass, their horns a glossy teal that shone strongly through the darkness like neon tubes. They moved their hooves with such elegance, it almost seemed like they were dancing. The calf ran back and forth between the two grown ones, rubbing its nose against their cheeks, before it zoomed off and jumped around rashly.

“That’s so…”

“Beautiful,” Sirius completed your sentence and you noticed him looking at you from the corner of your eye.

“Yes. How did you even find them?” you asked as quietly as possible. “They must be so shy.”

“The lads and I happen to be in the Forest quite often. Every month or so. Don’t ask, I’ll explain another time,” he said. “We spotted them here last year and I like to come and watch them from time to time.”

“Wow. Amazing.”

“We almost missed them. They don’t stay here for long.”

“You’re right,” you said. “They’re leaving already.”

Their aura was captivating, you had to stop yourself from following them and felt a wave of sadness washing over you as you watched them go.

“Sometimes they leave gifts,” Sirius whispered. “Come on.”

He walked up to the clearing and searched the ground with the light of his wand.

“Ah, perfect,” he said and picked up a wisp of long, white hair. “Unicorn hair is incredibly strong. It’s also worth a ton of Galleons, they use it for wandmaking and potions.”

“What are you going to do with it?” you asked.

He flicked his wand twice, making the wisp braid itself into something that looked like a fluorescent bracelet.

“I’d like to give it to you. As part of my promise.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. Give me your hand.”

You did as he said and let Sirius put the bracelet on.

“My apology for every time I stole and will steal marshmallows from you. It’s good luck too,” he said with a smile.

You chuckled and took a moment to admire your new charm. It was slim, delicate and simply put, beautiful.

“Do you forgive me?” he asked and held both of your hands in his.

Your stomach did a flip before you answered: “I do, yes.”

“I’m glad,” he answered and kept looking into your eyes.

“Oi!” a voice from afar called all of a sudden, tearing the two of you out of the moment. 

James, Remus and Peter battled their way through the bushes towards you.

“We’ve been looking for you for ages, mate,” James panted.

“Are you getting married, or what?” Peter asked and giggled.

“Shut up, Wormtail,” Sirius yelled and turned back to you. “Time to go, I guess.”

You nodded. “Let me know if you ever need someone to get lost in the woods with again. I’m always up for an adventure.”

“Oh, you bet I will.”

**The end.**


End file.
